Tim Auty has comfortably taken out the North West Car Club’s Rexel Electrical Supplies Isandula Rallysprint, ending the club’s final rallysprint of the year with an impressive 30 second victory.
 
Behind the wheel of his Mazda GTR, Auty and co-driver Callan Randall proved too good for the 30 competitors as they set the fastest times on five of the eight runs.
 
The duo’s consistency saw them finish their remaining runs within the top three outright as they finished second twice and the third once.
 
Only one other crew managed to finish in the top three for every run - the second-placed Peter Nunn and Brad Manson in their Subaru, while the Mitsubishi Lancer of Keith Ablitt and Adrian Hodgett rounded out the podium.
 
Although Auty and Randall seemed to have easily won the event on paper, the actual events were far from straightforward – with Molly Taylor and Coral Taylor proving to be the quickest when they were up and running.


The Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) star combination enjoyed the perfect start with two wins on the opening run, before her Subaru WRX suffered brake issues and prevented her from taking part in the second half of the morning’s stages. 
 
The Taylors’ withdrawal saw Auty move to top spot, despite finishing third in the opening stage behind Nunn. Once Auty gained the lead though, he would never relinquish it as he went fastest on the next three runs. 
 
Taylor did manage to get back in the car again, and went fastest in the sixth run, but that’s as good as it got, as the brake issues reappeared ahead of the final two stages and forced her back to the sidelines.
 
Auty was just three tenths behind her in that same run, before going on to win the final two runs and take out the victory in style. 


While Nunn deservedly enjoyed a second place finish, there were a couple of others who posted top three times across the event, including Ablitt, who finished third on the penultimate stage.
 
Ablitta found himself in an intriguing battle with Elliot Ritchie and Doug Austin for the whole event, each going faster on four occasions – but it was run seven that would prove the decisive moment late on – Ablitt’s four second win helping him finish above Ritchie by five seconds. 
 
Despite the battle for the minor podium places seeing a lot of interest, one of the most impressive results belonged to Jacob and Adrian Walsh, who guided their old Subaru wagon to fifth place and the non-log booked AWD class win.
 
Another class winner finished just 14 seconds off the Walshes in sixth overall, with Bradley Matthews and Mathew Crokam dominating the non-log booked 2WD cars.


The final class winner for the event was event organiser Brian Tarratt with his son Jordan Tarratt, who was calling the notes, with the father-son duo finishing eighth outright behind young rising star Jaidyn Gluskie.
 
“By all accounts, a great day was had by all, and a big thank you goes to those who helped behind the scenes bringing it together,” Tarrat said.
 
“Those who gave up their time to help with the working bee, helped set up the course, preparing the food van, updating Facebook and the website, pulling out cars, zeroing the course, doing the timing, the ladies who toiled in the food van and to all the officials – you are the ones that made it happen on the day.
 
“We also had rally royalty among us which lifted the profile and the energy of the event. Molly and Coral Taylor were very approachable, making time for adults and children alike, and meeting them was the highlight of the day for many.
 
“Tim has been knocking on the door of an outright win and it was well deserved following the work he has put into his car and Callan did a great job of keeping the low flying Tim on track.
 
“There was even a good spread of spectators across the two spectator points; even a local resident pulled up a chair for a few hours and had a great time, so that’s a bonus for the future of the event.”


Rounding out the top 10 were non-log booked 2WD cars podium getters, Leigh Ford and Nic Brown in their Ford Falcon and Don Stevens in a Mazda SP25 with Michael Bates.
 
In what proved to be a challenging day, only 18 cars finished the day, with one of the more notable retirements outside of Taylor being fellow ARC competitor Aidan Peterson. Although he had a strong start and was challenging for an outright podium, issues in the second half of the day saw him retire from the event.

View full results via the North West Car Club's Facebook channel.